White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was told to leave a Virginia restaurant because she works for President Donald Trump.

Ms Sanders tweeted that she was told by the owner of the Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia, that she had to “leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left”.

She said the episode on Friday evening said far more about the owner of the restaurant than it did about her.

Last night I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, VA to leave because I work for @POTUS and I politely left. Her actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so

“I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so,” Ms Sanders said in the tweet from her official account, which generated 22,000 replies in about an hour.

The restaurant’s co-owner Stephanie Wilkinson told The Washington Post that her staff had called her to report Ms Sanders was in the restaurant.

She cited several reasons, including the concerns of several restaurant employees who were gay and knew Ms Sanders had defended President Trump’s desire to bar transgender people from the military.

“Tell me what you want me to do. I can ask her to leave,” Ms Wilkinson told her staff, she said.

“They said yes.”

Ms Wilkinson said that she talked to Ms Sanders privately and that Ms Sanders’s response was immediate: “That’s fine. I’ll go.”